Drive-Bys Misunderstand My Laughter on Trump's Supposed Amnesty Flip-Flop

RUSH: Folks, I have to express complete shock and surprise when I got today's audio sound bite roster. The first 11 sound bites are me and the Drive-By Media reacting to me and something that happened on this show last week. Now, I do not watch news broadcast on the weekend, maybe Sunday night just to get back into the flow. I don't watch the Sunday shows, and I haven't in a long time, and it's only because I know what they're gonna be, even before they air, even before the guest lists with published.

I know what they're gonna do. I just... It's not arrogance; I just don't learn anything from them anymore, and they're not entertaining to me. So I don't watch them. What's new is that nobody tells me about it anymore, either. I don't get emails from anybody saying, "Did you see what happened on Meet the Press?" No. "Did you see what just happened on Fox News?" No. It used to be that people would email me about things. But now that doesn't happen.

The point is, I spent the last 2-1/2 days totally ignorant of how much something that happened on this program last week became the subject and focal point of so much in the Drive-By Media. Now, here's what it is. Last week, whatever day it was... It seems to me it was Wednesday, but it doesn't matter. It could have been Tuesday; could have been Thursday. Whatever the day was that the Drive-Bys put out the news that Trump was flip-flopping on immigration and was going to rethink his mass deportation effort, the Drive-Bys began laying the case that Trump was flip-flopping and that they had all predicted it.

And that it was going to add up to being amnesty. And that Trump's followers had been duped. But then the Drive-Bys said, "You know what? Trump's followers don't care! Trump's followers/supporters are staying with him no matter what." So I, upon hearing what the Drive-Bys were saying -- and as a result of my own investigation of what actually was happening in the Trump campaign -- was unable to control my laughter at the idea that... (laughing) I'll start laughing about it again now.

After all the efforts that so many in the Republican Party have made to get everybody to sign on to amnesty, who would have believed that it was Donald Trump who'd come along and have the Republican base essentially saying, "So what? No big deal." There was another story that day, whatever day it was. Snerdley brought it in to me. It was the New York Daily News with an absolutely psychotic reaction to my reporting the news that the agriculture department was granting funding and grants -- financial grants -- to lesbians so they could go out there and become farmers.

Those two things happened, and I was unable to control my laughter. It took a considered effort on my part to regain my composure here and present this program in a professional manner. Well, anyway, the Drive-By Media caught up on all this, and the first -- actually, the first 10. There's 11 sound bites total. The first 10 sound bites are about that. And, of course, the Drive-Bys have misunderstood what I was laughing about and what my laughter meant. But that's okay, because that's common. It causes me to laugh.

I'm gonna share all this with you we get back from the break here the bottom of the hour. But I don't know how to... I get here, and I didn't know this until Cookie sends me the sound bite roster at 11:30. I had no idea any of this has happened. I know some of you people ask, "How can you go through the whole week...?" 'Cause I don't watch, folks, anymore. I just don't. But then I added: Nobody tells me. As I say, it used to be, "Rush, they're talking about you!" That doesn't happen anymore, 'cause I guess it happens so much that that's all people would be doing, and they know it's no big deal to me anymore anyway.

RUSH: Okay. Here we go. We're just gonna start in the order in which I was furnished the sound bites. First off, to set it up, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we have a montage of people from NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and the AP discussing my reaction to Trump's apparent flip-flop on amnesty.

CHUCK TODD: Rush Limbaugh broke out in laughter over this.
JOHN BERMAN: Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh trying to compose himself. STEVE SCULLY: Rush Limbaugh this past week laughing.
DAVID MERCER: Rush Limbaugh going, "Who'd a thought that he'd a brought on amnesty?"
LOUIS BURGDORF: Rush Limbaugh could barely contain himself.
JOHN KING: Rush said, "Give me a minute to regain my composure." I mean, he was like (crosstalk) hysterical.
JULIE PACE: I could understand why (crosstalk) Rush would be cracking up.

RUSH: So went to Mike Pence to get clarification. We'll have expansion on all those. Mike Pence here on CNN's State of the Union, Jake Tapper yesterday, to try to put all this in perspective. Here's how that went.

TAPPER: It's Rush Limbaugh, it's Governor Sarah Palin, it's other people who want Donald Trump to win who are saying, wow, it sounds like he's really backing away from this deportation force removing 11 million, and you're not saying right now, Governor, you're not saying, you're not pledging, that there will be removal of all undocumented immigrants. You're not saying that?

PENCE: No. What I'm saying, Jake, I want to be very clear, there will be no path to legalization.

PENCE: No path to citizenship. People that want to gain legal status, you heard Donald Trump say again and again, will have to leave the country.

TAPPER: What about the millions in this country right now? What happens to them?

PENCE: I think Donald Trump will articulate what we do with the people who are here.

RUSH: Okay, we keep going. This interview continued. And Tapper said okay, "You're saying that he's gonna be unveiling it in the next few weeks, 72 days 'til the election -- I think it's this week, in fact, I think this week Trump's gonna unveil this new immigration policy in the speech."

PENCE: What you see going on right now, and I think at a certain level it's very refreshing 'cause it's the Donald Trump that I see every day, is you see a CEO at work, you see someone who is engaging the American people, listening to the American people, he's hearing from all sides, but I promise you he is a decisive leader, he will stand on the principles that have underpinned his commitment to end illegal immigration in this country, and that's what people will learn more about in the days ahead.

RUSH: Back to F. Chuck Todd on the Meet the Press show, this was yesterday. And he used me and my laughter to set up a question for Reince Priebus.

TODD: After a week where an attempt to moderate on immigration turned into a muddle.

TRUMP: There certainly can be a softening, because we're not looking to hurt people. I've had people say it's a hardening.

RUSH ARCHIVE: (laughing) Who knew that it would be Donald Trump to come out and convert the GOP base.

TODD: Trump's latest confusion may be an attempt to soften his image without alienating longtime supporters.

PRIEBUS: You're gonna find out from Donald Trump very shortly. He's gonna be giving prepared remarks on this issue I think very soon. I don't want to give a date. Here's what I know. His position is going to be tough, his position is going to be fair, but his position is going to be humane. He's a guy who's gonna be tougher on this issue, tougher on illegal immigration than any politician that we've ever had as a nominee or ever could have as a nominee.

RUSH: Okay, that's Reince Priebus. Just to be clear, folks, I don't think there's been a flip-flop here at all. I think Trump's Trump. I think Trump says what he's thinking day to day, and if it sounds different from what he said the previous day, people make a mistake if they think Trump does not have rooted principles, if they think he doesn't have certain beliefs that are unwavering. I don't have any doubt that what he has said about immigration combined with what he said about free trade, he means it.

I think where this is all gonna end up -- and I made this point Friday -- I think where this is all gonna end up, the argument's gonna be whether they come back after being sent out of the country or touch-back amnesty or whatever. Where this is going, mark my words right now, where this is going is everybody knows what this is all about.

On the Democrat side, the only reason this is happening is because the Democrats need a permanent underclass and they want whatever number of illegals are here to be able to register to vote. If it's 11 million, 12 million, the assumption is they're all gonna vote Big Government, they're all gonna vote dependence, they're all gonna vote Democrat.

The Republicans a little bit muddier water but essentially the Chamber of Commerce donates, the donors rule, and they want cheap labor. And some others in the Republican voting bloc also want the cheap labor aspect. I think the Republican Party too would like to have a stab at these people as voters. And I think that's where this is gonna shake out. Somebody, besides me, somebody is gonna make the suggestion, the proposal, 'cause people are gonna have to be flushed out on this.

I don't know if there will ever be a serious deportation effort. I don't know how successful it would be if it were tried. But I do know something very simple to do here. And if you want to consider this advice to the Trump campaign, have at it. This is all gonna shake out with, okay, are we gonna make them citizens, is there gonna be amnesty, are we gonna forgive the crimes -- that's one thing, but then are we gonna go further and make them citizens? 'Cause if we don't make them citizens, they can't vote. And that's where this is gonna shake out.

If somebody on the Republican side would seriously propose, "Hey, you know what? You want to forgive them, you want the admission that 11 million, 12 million, whatever number, are not gonna be deported, fine, but here's where it ends. They don't get to vote. They don't get citizenship for years. This business of having them automatically registered to vote, not going for that. And you'll flush people out. You'll find out exactly why this is all an issue in the first place, if that becomes the dividing line, if that becomes the premise under which people support or oppose whatever future immigration policy is.

Rush, Rush, Rush....

Trump announced he would be giving a speech focused on immigration. The MSM has spent the last week trying to pry out of any and every one, what Trump will say before he says it. The more frustrated the MSM becomes at not ferretting out a leak (which feretting last denied Pence the honor of being formally announced), the more outrageous the speculation. This morning, the down to the level of disgusting, Morning Joe tried to trend ‘amnesty Don’ and kept referring to ‘softening’ and ‘hardening’. It was a real class bully gigglefest with Mika leading the character assault. (But it was quite an open window into who they think their audience is - 14yo’s). Sunday, Hillary mouthpiece Jack Trapper seemed incredulous a surrogate defended the right of a person to want to keep a speech private until it’s actually given. All of this dark noise is meant to intimidate, confuse and demoralize Republicans. It’s a NeverTrumpPress temper tantrum for not finding a leak.

Let Trump speak.

Steady on. Trump Train comin’ thru!

No kidding, he talks about what the media says about Trump and himself. Calls them out for being full of it, and he is backstabbing, sellout, traitor..
Make you wonder if these folks actually hear what he says instead of just reading the dialogue.

I stopped listening to Limbaugh years ago when he went "all iced tea, all 3 hours." I think it was when he JIP the Casey Anthony verdict, slipping in iced tea references that ended me actively seeking him out.

I have a low threshold for ABS/ABC marketing, and he was simply too over the top with self promotion.

I guess I missed his being bought by the eGOP. Especially since it was for YEB!, of all people.

Rush uses the entertainer position when something he does isn’t right. His other default option is using the absurd to illustrate the absurd. When he says either of those, you know he blew it about something.

“Whatever you want to think... but it is pretty clear you are just believing what others are saying about him. Others who don’t get sarcasm either.”

I have listened to him plenty, and formed my own opinion: He is ultimately a creature of the establishment in his heart, not just in his wallet; he plays it canny and clever and close to the vest, so as not to alienate too much of his audience.

As far as sarcasm, I get it just fine; I also get selective sarcasm: It is what Limbaugh does and does not choose as his targets for sarcasm that show his hand. He has been far more sarcastic far more often about Trump supporters than about Cruz or Rubio supporters.

... or for that matter, about Romney supporters in 2012 - you know, the supporters of that severely conservative guy who created the template for communistic healthcare on the State level so that Comrade Obama wouldn’t have to work too hard (’cause he hates to work) to destroy one-sixth of the national economy through Federal usurpation?

If there has been anyone that Rush should have lampooned on the air, it was the Rat-king, Willard. I never once heard him satirize or trivialize Romney the way he has done to the real capitalist, Trump.

Rush’s number one priority is keeping a large audience.<<<

I rest my case your Honor!....

But having said that....He sometimes offers a nugget of truth to us Squirrels that need to find a nut somewhere on occasion...on purpose or by mistake....

You decide...

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